1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a managing apparatus and management method utilizing, for example, network communication, and relates particularly to a managing apparatus and management method that remotely controls data sent by a device monitoring program monitoring a device via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional maintenance system, in which a management server is installed on the Internet and the system manages a client device via a network, is known. In this conventional maintenance system, the management server collects, for example, information on the device status, number of sheets to be printed, or the like sent from a device monitoring apparatus installed at the same site as the monitored device, and manages the device based thereupon. In such a case, collection condition information required for managing devices, such as, for example, scheduling settings regarding what sort of information is to be sent to the management server, is set up by the installer when the device monitoring apparatus is installed. It should be noted here that programs for monitoring a device have been run by the device itself as of late. In such a case, the device monitoring apparatus is installed within the device itself. Accordingly, rather than using the term “device monitoring apparatus”, the term “device monitoring module” shall be used in the following descriptions. “Device monitoring module” includes both an independent device monitoring apparatus as well as a device monitoring apparatus installed within a device.
There have been cases where, in such a maintenance system, the inefficiencies found in communication, hardware, and the like, which do not pose problems when managing a small number of devices, have a great effect on the system when the management server manages a large number of devices. In response to this, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H07-137358 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technique for avoiding redundant communication by selecting and setting the details of notifications provided from the monitoring apparatus to the monitored apparatuses.
However, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 cannot be applied in cases such as where the information required for performing maintenance changes dynamically. For example, a user may determine that information regarding printer jamming is not necessary in the initial settings, and sets this information so as not to be communicated from the monitored apparatus. However, under these settings, the system cannot respond to a situation in which the information regarding printer jamming becomes necessary later on. In particular, when there are many monitored devices, all of the notifications may end up being set to ON when using the technique described in Patent Document 1.